Where the Magic Happens: Artists in the Studio
Open through October 19, 2024
An artist’s studio should be a small space because small rooms discipline the mind and large ones distract it.
— Leonardo da Vinci
What is it that an artist does when he is left alone in his studio? My conclusion was that if I was an artist and I was in the studio, then everything I was doing in the studio should be art … From that point on, art became more of an activity and less of a product.
— Bruce Nauman
The studio is a laboratory, not a factory. An exhibition is the result of your experiments, but the process is never-ending. So an exhibition is not a conclusion.
— Chris Ofili
Explore the studios of artists through their own eyes in this exhibition of artworks from the museum’s collection. Tools and other materials used by artists such as Jim Hagan, Herschel C. Logan, and Bernard Steffen complement prints, drawings, and works in other media depicting artists in their studios. Enjoy a behind-the-scenes look at the deeply personal activity of creation.
Light-sensitive works on paper in this exhibition will be changed during the summer, so be sure to look out for a new set of studio views!
Major Sponsor: Greater Manhattan Community Foundation’s Lincoln & Dorothy I. Deihl Community Grants Program
Caroline Thorington, Magician 3rd State, 2013, lithograph, gift of Caroline Thorington, 2017.285
Douglas L. Osa, The Próvacateur, 1997 – 1999, oil on linen, 32 x 30 in. Friends of the Beach Museum of Art purchase, 2000.2
Laura Fry began as senior curator and curator of American art at Gilcrease Museum in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in 2015. Fry is leading the development of an interpretive plan for the Gilcrease permanent collections in the museum’s new building (estimated to open in 2026). Fry earned her bachelor of fine arts degree from Washington University in St. Louis. She received a master’s degree in art history from the University of Denver. Before Gilcrease, Fry worked at the Tacoma Art Museum in Washington and the Buffalo Bill Center of the West in Cody, Wyoming.
Enjoy short videos about art in the Beach Museum of Art’s collection. Each video features information about an 
ARTSmart classes: Explore the current exhibitions. Each class includes looking activities in the galleries and an art project. Classes are held on the first Wednesday and Thursday of the month at 10:30 (ages 2-5) and 4:30 (all ages). Upcoming classes: March 6 & 7: wood+paper+box Part 2
